Having decided what Dag’s story would be, I still had to come up with something for Laurie. If I wanted to do a serious story with her Sim, there were several subject matters for me to choose from.
One of the first ideas I had was doing a story about abortion. In fact, it was in the first story from that one fifties movie which I can’t mention because I may give it a go one of these days yet. But, sometimes things being iffy as far as content goes at the Sims2, I don’t know if they would let a story about a teen having an abortion get by. Certainly there would be a lot of complaints about it and when push comes to shove, I would have been the one that lost out. If the story was hidden or banned, all my work would be for naught. (as it was, a year after I posted the story that I did write, somebody got ants up their pants and several chapters of Laurie and Dag were hidden from view. Also at the time I originally wrote the story I was not sure if there was another venue where the story could find an audience.)
There wasone story I had read that had two teen male characters who were gay. That was commendable, but unfortunately the author had made them out to be the exaggerated caricatures we have always seen over the years courtesy of Hollywood.
I have known many gay people and in fact shared a home with one, and none of the gays or lesbians I knew fit the stereotypes they are often portrayed as. Coincidentally, this was taking place right after the 2004 election when Bush and his religious right supporters had used the Gay Marriage issue to help keep him in office. So I decided that I wanted to write a story about a gay teen, in this case Laurie, and what it must be like to grow up knowing all the prejudices and ridicule you are going to face in the world. How would one cope with that?
There was just one big enormous problem. I really was clueless about the subject matter. Sure, I knew how I felt about gay issues, but how does someone write about something they really haven’t experienced?
So I began to research and to read. Facts are easy to come by. Statistics are easy to come by. But facts and statistics don’t tell the story. It is those personal first hand stories that grab your attention and hold you spellbound. One of the most compelling web sites I visited was one in which each person told their individual stories about finding out they were gay, and how they came out.
I read many of them and it’s surprising how they often they seemed the same, yet were different in so many ways. Many, like Laurie, thought they were gay at an early age or experienced longings to be with another woman and only women. Often they would try to deny it, or weren’t even sure what their sexual identity was. Others were also bi-sexual. Many gays and lesbians would stay in unhappy heterosexual relationships for years rather than accept the fact that they were gay.
Some of the more heart wrenching stories I read were of adults who finally after twenty or thirty years come out of the closet. Often they lamented the years they had wasted trying to be something they were not. There were many stories of those whose families would disown them or have nothing to do with them any longer. Sometimes after many years their attitudes would change, but just as often they would not.
The worst stories were of those who had been harassed, tortured and even murdered simply because of their sexual identity. The two stories that stuck with me the most were that of Scotty Joe Weaver and Matthew Shepherd. Still there are so many others where people have been murdered and beaten, yet the religious right still to this day is fighting to have hate crimes against homosexuals excluded from the Hate Crimes Act.
But there were also many happy stories of those who found joy in lifetime relationships. There were stories of those who readily accepted they were gay, lesbian, or bi. But the fact remained that while they found happiness in their relationships, in most states they are still not afforded the same rights as a heterosexual couple. In other state states such as Ohio laws were being passed that would actually take away some of the rights afforded to the gay community by making it illegal for even private corporations to offer gay couples benefits.
By the time I had finished my research, I knew just one thing. That perhaps if the story would touch one person, or if it would somehow enlighten even one person, then all the hard work would be well worth the effort.
So finally, it was time to begin my outline. Unlike The Kid & Me which was more or less written on the fly, I wanted to make sure that I at least had the story line generally planned beforehand, even if I would have to deviate from it somewhat. To give you an example, in this original storyline, I originally had the story going all the way up to the end of Laurie’s first year of college but before I had finished the first chapter, I had already come up with a new ending,
the one that you have read. Then there are the technical aspects of writing a Sims Story.
I had to make sure I had all the Sims I needed. Of course, I already had the Bakers from the previous stories, along with Lawyer Daggett, his wife Erica, and Arcadia. I no longer had Frank as his Sim file had become corrupted but I was ready to try to recreate them. Once again if I had stuck completely to my original outline I would have had to. So using Sims body shop, I created all of the Sims I would need. Of course, having acquired a bit of experience since the first go round, they came out looking quite a bit
better than my original batch that I had used in The Kid & Me. This batch included, Andrew Everett, Gail Lyons, Kurt Miller, Chuck Easterman, Marcella Lyons, Elizabeth Schaeffer, Glenn Hamilton, Ronnie Hamilton, Harold Nye, and a few others. I also was able to fix some of the imperfections in Joe, Bettie and Laurie. If you’ve read both stories, you probably noticed the difference in Joe especially. Bettie’s changes were more subtle. As for Laurie, she had only a very few frames in The Kid & Me so I don’t think anybody really noticed.
If you have read some of the more elaborate stories at the Sims 2, a lot of people use what are called sets to photograph their stories, just like in Hollywood. Most of the time these are built on one large lot. The problem is that after a while, you can often tell that all the writer did was change the wall paper on the walls. So I prefer whenever possible to use actually buildings in my stories. I also did this because I felt that by doing so, it would also highlight some of the other creators at The Sims 2 web site.
In The Kid & Me, since about 90 per cent of the story took place at the Baker Home, I didn’t have to build too many of the other buildings. And yes, I did only use a set I built on the back
part of the Baker lot for Dag’s stay in the hospital, and for the birth of Bettie and Joe’s first child. I built the two clothing stores I needed in that story, and simply downloaded the rest of the lots off the official web site.
The most elaborate lot I had to use for that story though was the one called Pagoda Park. You certainly will remember that lot which was a major part of the story and The Kid and Me Video. It was made by a someone with the Sim name Cocarica and you can use the link I provided to find it. I have long lost the links to the other few lots I used such as the restaurant
where Bettie met Charlene.
Laurie and Dag was a different story. I would need many lots, three of which were absolutely crucial to the story. Some of these included the Elementary School where Dag would teach, the High School that Laurie and her friends attended, and of course the apartment building where Dag would eventually meet up with Ronnie and Glenn. A Sim friend of mine by the name of KiraCm1 had just built and designed the High School for someone else who was writing a story. I asked her if I could use it and she agreed. As if that weren’t enough, she designed
and built the grade school from top to bottom saving me a lot of time and effort, and on top of that the apartment building. I can’t tell you how grateful I will always be to her not only for the time and energy that she put into it, but because it enabled me to spend my time developing the story instead of taking care of technical details. Kira had also designed the lot where Joe and Bettie had spent their honeymoon in The Kid & Me. The hospital that I used plus The Beanery were also designed by her. Kira no longer does Sim stuff and I haven’t heard from her in a long while. So if you’re out there somewhere Kira, thanks again for all of your help. You can still 
view some of her work on this page I believe, although I think you have to be a registered game user to view each lot individually. Sadly, the apartment building and the Beanery where Laurie and Kurt often visited are no longer there but I'm sure I have them in my files somewhere.
When I was originally writing the story I always tried to acknowledge the lots I had used or clothes. Now, I no longer have many of the original lot names or the links to them. Some of them no longer exist. But to everybody who built those lots, please accept my gratitude.
But as you can see, if you want to write a good story using The Sims Game, it takes a lot more work than just writing the text. Is it worth all the trouble? Sometimes it was, while at other times it didn’t seem to be. But all of that aside, I had assembled all the ingredients I needed and it was now time to write the actual story.
One of the first ideas I had was doing a story about abortion. In fact, it was in the first story from that one fifties movie which I can’t mention because I may give it a go one of these days yet. But, sometimes things being iffy as far as content goes at the Sims2, I don’t know if they would let a story about a teen having an abortion get by. Certainly there would be a lot of complaints about it and when push comes to shove, I would have been the one that lost out. If the story was hidden or banned, all my work would be for naught. (as it was, a year after I posted the story that I did write, somebody got ants up their pants and several chapters of Laurie and Dag were hidden from view. Also at the time I originally wrote the story I was not sure if there was another venue where the story could find an audience.)
There wasone story I had read that had two teen male characters who were gay. That was commendable, but unfortunately the author had made them out to be the exaggerated caricatures we have always seen over the years courtesy of Hollywood.
I have known many gay people and in fact shared a home with one, and none of the gays or lesbians I knew fit the stereotypes they are often portrayed as. Coincidentally, this was taking place right after the 2004 election when Bush and his religious right supporters had used the Gay Marriage issue to help keep him in office. So I decided that I wanted to write a story about a gay teen, in this case Laurie, and what it must be like to grow up knowing all the prejudices and ridicule you are going to face in the world. How would one cope with that?
There was just one big enormous problem. I really was clueless about the subject matter. Sure, I knew how I felt about gay issues, but how does someone write about something they really haven’t experienced?
So I began to research and to read. Facts are easy to come by. Statistics are easy to come by. But facts and statistics don’t tell the story. It is those personal first hand stories that grab your attention and hold you spellbound. One of the most compelling web sites I visited was one in which each person told their individual stories about finding out they were gay, and how they came out.
I read many of them and it’s surprising how they often they seemed the same, yet were different in so many ways. Many, like Laurie, thought they were gay at an early age or experienced longings to be with another woman and only women. Often they would try to deny it, or weren’t even sure what their sexual identity was. Others were also bi-sexual. Many gays and lesbians would stay in unhappy heterosexual relationships for years rather than accept the fact that they were gay.
Some of the more heart wrenching stories I read were of adults who finally after twenty or thirty years come out of the closet. Often they lamented the years they had wasted trying to be something they were not. There were many stories of those whose families would disown them or have nothing to do with them any longer. Sometimes after many years their attitudes would change, but just as often they would not.
The worst stories were of those who had been harassed, tortured and even murdered simply because of their sexual identity. The two stories that stuck with me the most were that of Scotty Joe Weaver and Matthew Shepherd. Still there are so many others where people have been murdered and beaten, yet the religious right still to this day is fighting to have hate crimes against homosexuals excluded from the Hate Crimes Act.
But there were also many happy stories of those who found joy in lifetime relationships. There were stories of those who readily accepted they were gay, lesbian, or bi. But the fact remained that while they found happiness in their relationships, in most states they are still not afforded the same rights as a heterosexual couple. In other state states such as Ohio laws were being passed that would actually take away some of the rights afforded to the gay community by making it illegal for even private corporations to offer gay couples benefits.
By the time I had finished my research, I knew just one thing. That perhaps if the story would touch one person, or if it would somehow enlighten even one person, then all the hard work would be well worth the effort.
So finally, it was time to begin my outline. Unlike The Kid & Me which was more or less written on the fly, I wanted to make sure that I at least had the story line generally planned beforehand, even if I would have to deviate from it somewhat. To give you an example, in this original storyline, I originally had the story going all the way up to the end of Laurie’s first year of college but before I had finished the first chapter, I had already come up with a new ending,
the one that you have read. Then there are the technical aspects of writing a Sims Story.I had to make sure I had all the Sims I needed. Of course, I already had the Bakers from the previous stories, along with Lawyer Daggett, his wife Erica, and Arcadia. I no longer had Frank as his Sim file had become corrupted but I was ready to try to recreate them. Once again if I had stuck completely to my original outline I would have had to. So using Sims body shop, I created all of the Sims I would need. Of course, having acquired a bit of experience since the first go round, they came out looking quite a bit
better than my original batch that I had used in The Kid & Me. This batch included, Andrew Everett, Gail Lyons, Kurt Miller, Chuck Easterman, Marcella Lyons, Elizabeth Schaeffer, Glenn Hamilton, Ronnie Hamilton, Harold Nye, and a few others. I also was able to fix some of the imperfections in Joe, Bettie and Laurie. If you’ve read both stories, you probably noticed the difference in Joe especially. Bettie’s changes were more subtle. As for Laurie, she had only a very few frames in The Kid & Me so I don’t think anybody really noticed.If you have read some of the more elaborate stories at the Sims 2, a lot of people use what are called sets to photograph their stories, just like in Hollywood. Most of the time these are built on one large lot. The problem is that after a while, you can often tell that all the writer did was change the wall paper on the walls. So I prefer whenever possible to use actually buildings in my stories. I also did this because I felt that by doing so, it would also highlight some of the other creators at The Sims 2 web site.
In The Kid & Me, since about 90 per cent of the story took place at the Baker Home, I didn’t have to build too many of the other buildings. And yes, I did only use a set I built on the back
part of the Baker lot for Dag’s stay in the hospital, and for the birth of Bettie and Joe’s first child. I built the two clothing stores I needed in that story, and simply downloaded the rest of the lots off the official web site.The most elaborate lot I had to use for that story though was the one called Pagoda Park. You certainly will remember that lot which was a major part of the story and The Kid and Me Video. It was made by a someone with the Sim name Cocarica and you can use the link I provided to find it. I have long lost the links to the other few lots I used such as the restaurant
where Bettie met Charlene.Laurie and Dag was a different story. I would need many lots, three of which were absolutely crucial to the story. Some of these included the Elementary School where Dag would teach, the High School that Laurie and her friends attended, and of course the apartment building where Dag would eventually meet up with Ronnie and Glenn. A Sim friend of mine by the name of KiraCm1 had just built and designed the High School for someone else who was writing a story. I asked her if I could use it and she agreed. As if that weren’t enough, she designed
and built the grade school from top to bottom saving me a lot of time and effort, and on top of that the apartment building. I can’t tell you how grateful I will always be to her not only for the time and energy that she put into it, but because it enabled me to spend my time developing the story instead of taking care of technical details. Kira had also designed the lot where Joe and Bettie had spent their honeymoon in The Kid & Me. The hospital that I used plus The Beanery were also designed by her. Kira no longer does Sim stuff and I haven’t heard from her in a long while. So if you’re out there somewhere Kira, thanks again for all of your help. You can still 
view some of her work on this page I believe, although I think you have to be a registered game user to view each lot individually. Sadly, the apartment building and the Beanery where Laurie and Kurt often visited are no longer there but I'm sure I have them in my files somewhere.When I was originally writing the story I always tried to acknowledge the lots I had used or clothes. Now, I no longer have many of the original lot names or the links to them. Some of them no longer exist. But to everybody who built those lots, please accept my gratitude.
But as you can see, if you want to write a good story using The Sims Game, it takes a lot more work than just writing the text. Is it worth all the trouble? Sometimes it was, while at other times it didn’t seem to be. But all of that aside, I had assembled all the ingredients I needed and it was now time to write the actual story.
Click here to read Part Three of The Story Behind the Story.
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